ober 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


CONSERVATION    IDEALS    IN    THE    IMPEOVEMENT     OF 
PLANTS 


BY  DB.  H.  J.  WEBBER 


Reprinted  from  the  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY,  June,  1912. 


Agric.   Dept. 

[Eeprinted  from  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY,  June,  1912.] 


10/3 


CONSERVATION    IDEALS    IN    THE    IMPROVEMENT     OF 
PLANTS 

BY  DB.  H.  J.  WEBBER 

NEW  YORK  STATE  COLLEGE  OF  AGBICDLTUBE,  CORNELL  UNIVERSITY 

THE  conservation  movement  had  its  inception  in  the  wasteful  meth- 
ods practised  in  the  utilization  of  our  national  resources,  such  as 
our  forests  and  mineral  deposits.     Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  the  great 
English  evolutionist  and  contemporary  of  Darwin,  has  characterized 
the  last  century  as  a  century  of  despoliation  of  the  natural  resources  of 
-1        the  earth.    Our  forests  have  been  ruthlessly  destroyed  until  good  lumber 
^~       has  reached  a  very  high  price,  and  turpentine  and  resin  in  sufficient 
quantities  to  meet  the  world's  requirements  can  scarcely  be  obtained. 
In  the  meantime  large  areas,  denuded  of  forests,  have  been  changed  in 
climatic  conditions  and  the  fertile  soils  exposed  to  destructive  erosion. 
Coal  beds  are  being  worked  in  ever  increasing  quantities  and  must  ulti- 
co        mately  be  exhausted.     The  Chilean  nitrate-of-soda  deposits  are  ap- 
proaching exhaustion.    We  use  without  thought  of  the  morrow.    The 
^       conservation  movement  has  extended  to  the  consideration  of  soil  fer- 
es      tility,  the  proper  utilization  of  water,  of  water  power,  of  our  land  do- 
<       main,  and  the  like. 

There  is  scarcely  any  source  of  wealth  or  of  material  necessities  that 

has  not  felt  the  influence  of  the  conservation  movement.    If  we  seek  the 

real  source  or  reason  for  this  inquiry,  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  rapid  in- 

^       crease  of  our  population.    The  arguments  are  too  familiar  to  require 

D       repetition.    We  all  know  that  the  population  of  this  country  and  of  the 

j       world  is  increasing  so  rapidly  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  our 

•?.       children  will  have  great  difficulty  in  producing  the  necessary  supplies 

jv      to  maintain  life.    The  teeming  millions  of  fifty  and  one  hundred  years 

0      hence  will  not  have  the  rich,  virgin  lands  on  which  to  extend  their  agri- 

culture, the  primeval  forests,  the  apparently  inexhaustible  coal  beds, 

the  extensive  deposits  of  phosphates,  nitrates  and  potash  salts,  to  use 

in  rebuilding  their  soils.     All  these  sources  of  supply  that  we  have 

utilized  and  found  so  necessary  to  life  will  be  gone  or  rapidly  disap- 

pearing, and  the  extent  of  the  demand  will  meanwhile  have  increased 

many  fold.    It  takes  no  very  extraordinary  vision  to  picture  the  fierce- 

ness of  the  struggle  for  existence  that  must  soon  be  reached  in  the  de- 

velopment of  the  human  race.    True,  there  is  no  immediate  concern, 

as  the  world  will  comfortably  support  a  very  much  larger  population; 

but  to  preserve  future  generations  from  danger  requires  the  wise  action 

of  the  present  and  succeeding  generations.     The  careful  study  of  the 


£53001 


579  TEE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

problem  in  all  its  phases  is  a  duty  that  we  can  not  shirk.  The  high 
cost  of  living  at  the  present  time  and  the  simpler  living  that  thousands 
of  families  have  been  compelled  to  adopt  is  a  reminder  of  the  necessity, 
even  to  the  present  generation,  of  a  careful  study  of  the  existing  condi- 
tions. 

The  problem  of  all  problems  confronting  us  is  the  necessity  of  in- 
creasing the  production  of  food  stuffs.  How  can  this  be  done?  Ob- 
viously the  problem  can  be  attacked  from  many  sides,  but  the  side  that 
I  desire  to  emphasize  is  the  conservation  of  the  best  breeding  stock  of 
plants  and  animals.  This  seems  a  simple  matter,  but  I  am  sure  that 
the  far-reaching  possibilities  of  such  conservation  are  not  understood 
and  are  beyond  our  conception  at  the  present  time,  as  our  viewpoint  is 
necessarily  limited  by  our  present  knowledge.  Nevertheless,  as  judged 
by  our  present  knowledge,  the  possibilities  are  so  great  as  to  place 
this  factor,  I  believe,  among  the  important  features  of  the  conservation 
movement 

What  do  we  not  owe  to  our  domesticated  and  improved  plants  and 
animals?  They  are  the  greatest  heritage  that  has  come  down  to  us 
from  our  ancestors.  If  the  cultivated  varieties  and  breeds  of  wheat, 
oats,  corn,  cotton,  potatoes,  cattle,  sheep,  hogs  and  horses  were  all  de- 
stroyed from  the  earth  and  we  were  forced  to  go  back  to  wild  nature 
and  begin  the  improvement  over  again,  it  is  probable  that  the  world 
would  be  almost  depopulated  and  that  the  progeny  of  the  few  hardy 
individuals  that  survived  would,  in  the  centuries  that  followed,  repeat 
the  history  of  plant  and  animal  improvement  that  has  taken  place  in 
the  past.  Doubtless,  however,  new  plants  and  animals  now  unknown 
to  us  would  be  the  successful  ones  in  the  new  evolution.  That  we  now 
cultivate  wheat,  oats,  corn  and  the  like  is  probably  in  large  measure 
due  to  the  accident  that  attempts  to  artificially  cultivate  plants  started 
in  regions  where  the  wild  ancestors  of  these  plants  were  native. 

In  many  cases  the  wild  ancestors  of  our  cultivated  plants  are  not 
positively  known.  It  is  not  probable  that  the  ancestral  types  have  be- 
come extinct,  but  that  the  cultivated  forms  have  been  so  greatly  modi- 
fied that  the  relationship  can  not  now  be  recognized  with  certainty.  If 
JEgilops  ovata,  a  wild  grass  of  southern  Europe,  is  the  original  ancestral 
form  of  wheat,  as  is  supposed  by  some  botanists,  we  have  very  many  na- 
tive grasses  in  various  parts  of  the  United  States,  which  in  an  unim- 
proved state  have  much  larger  grains  and  would  seem  to  be  equally 
worthy  of  cultivation  and  improvement.  If  Teosinte  (Euclcena  luxuri- 
ans),  a  wild  native  grass  of  Mexico,  is  the  original  wild  ancestor  of  corn, 
as  is  believed  by  many  scientists  because  of  the  fact  that  it  is  a  native  of 
the  region  where  corn  was  first  cultivated,  is  known  to  be  subject  to  the 
same  diseases,  such  as  smut,  and  above  all  from  the  fact  that  it  hybri- 
dizes readily  with  corn,  we  have  an  unpromising  grass,  so  far  as  its 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  PLANTS  580 

grain  is  concerned,  which  has  developed  into  our  greatest  of  all  grain 
crops. 

Are  we  correct  in  assuming  that  all  of  the  valuable  plants  and 
animals  have  already  been  introduced  into  cultivation  ?  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  are  we  not  justified  in  questioning  whether  the  most  valuable  have 
been  introduced?  On  sober  second  thought,  does  it  not  seem  wonder- 
ful that  wheat,  a  native  of  the  Mediterranean  region,  should  remain 
the  best  grain  crop  for  a  region  including  the  greater  part  of  British 
America  and  the  United  States,  of  Eussia  and  Argentina  and  all  the 
broad  area  where  wheat  is  cultivated  ?  Would  it  not  seem  probable  that 
the  improvement  of  the  most  promising  native  grain-grasses  in  these 
widely  different  regions  would  yield  new  types  of  grain  crops  better 
adapted  to  the  regions  and  superior  to  wheat  or  oats  ?  The  great  value 
of  wheat  and  oats  lies  not  in  the  superiority  of  the  wild  types  from 
which  they  sprang,  but  to  the  long  years  of  cultivation  and  selection  to 
which  they  have  been  subjected.  A  large  number  of  wild  grasses  occur- 
ring in  almost  every  region  have  comparatively  large  grains,  and  if  they 
were  capable  of  improvement,  as  they  doubtless  are,  they  might  possibly 
excel  any  grains  that  we  now  have.  The  Indian  rice  or  water  oat 
(Zizania  aquatica)  is  an  illustration  of  a  large-grained  wild  grass  that 
is  probably  known  to  many.  Doubtless  this  could  be  greatly  improved 
for  cultivation  in  low  lands  as  rice  is  now  cultivated. 

The  wild  wheat  grass  (Agropyrum  occidentdle)  of  the  great  plains 
region  is  a  very  promising  type  for  improvement,  as  pointed  out  by 
Dr.  Bessey.2  In  this  wild  grass  we  have  a  head  5  or  6  inches  long  and 
developing  long,  narrow  grains  much  resembling  wheat.  It  is  a  peren- 
nial and  grows  to  a  height  of  2  or  3  feet.  Dr.  Bessey  says  of  this 
plant : 

If  our  plant  had  had  but  a  fraction  of  the  careful  cultivation  and  selection 
which  have  been  given  the  European  species,  I  am  confident  that  it  would  have 
yielded  a  much  more  productive  cereal  than  we  have  in  our  present  varieties 
of  wheat. 

Consider  further  that  we  have  here  a  perennial  that  would  doubtless 
yield  for  several  or  possibly  many  years  without  reseeding,  and  also 
that  it  is  a  native  of  the  great  plains  region  and  thus  already  adapted 
to  the  environment  of  the  great  wheat  states  of  the  union.  Comparing 
this  grass  with  wheat,  which  should  we  expect  to  be  better  adapted  to 
the  "  dry  farming  "  regions  of  the  west  ? 

Several  of  the  wild  rye  grasses  (Elymus)  have  large  heads  and 
grains  and  appear  very  promising,  as  do  also  certain  species  of  the  so- 
called  beard-grass  (Andropogon) . 

We  have  only  considered  the  value  of  these  grasses  from  the  stand- 
point of  their  grain  development ;  but  it  is  of  almost  equal  importance 

1  Bessey,  C.  E.,  "Crop  Improvement  by  Utilizing  Wild  Species,"  American 
Breeders'  Association,  Vol.  II.,  p.  113. 


58i  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

to  consider  their  value  as  forage  crops  for  animal  food,  and  here  a  much 
greater  latitude  for  selection  is  possible.  A  very  large  number  of  our 
native  plants  should  be  tested  and  the  most  promising  improved  for 
forage  purposes. 

In  the  development  of  leguminous  crops  we  have  a  valuable  field 
of  research.  Of  the  many  hundreds  of  legumes,  we  now  cultivate  only 
about  a  dozen  species,  such  as  beans,  peas,  clover,  alfalfa,  crimson  clover, 
cowpeas,  soy  beans  and  the  like,  representing  a  natural  adaptation  to 
as  many  localities.  None  of  the  species  ordinarily  cultivated  in  the 
northern  United  States  are  natives  of  this  great  section.  Yet  an  ex- 
amination of  the  botanies  shows  that  some  150  different  species  of 
legumes  are  natives  of  this  section.  Would  it  not  seem  absurd  to  as- 
sume that  our  present  cultivated  species  represent  the  best  types  for 
this  section,  when  the  most  promising  of  those  that  the  great  Master 
Breeder  gave  us  have  not  been  thoroughly  improved  and  tested? 
Among  the  wild  native  species  of  Desmodium,  Vicia,  Lespedeza  and 
other  legumes,  we  have  a  number  of  promising  sorts.  We  have  tested 
many  of  these  species  in  comparison  with  our  ordinary  cultivated  crops 
and  discarded  them,  but  our  tests  have  been  of  the  wild,  unimproved, 
against  the  improved  types.  We  might  as  reasonably  put  gloves  on  a 
wild  pygmy  of  Africa  and  test  him  on  the  mat  with  a  trained  modern 
athlete. 

Doubtless  the  mere  mentioning  of  the  improvement  of  native  plants 
suggests  to  the  minds  of  each  one  of  you  some  wild  plant  that  you  have 
observed  and  thought  to  possess  valuable  qualities.  If  our  sources  of 
nitrogen  supply  are  to  be  exhausted  soon,  we  must  cultivate  more  legu- 
minous crops  that  can  gather  their  own  nitrogen  and  improve  the  soil 
in  this  respect  while  furnishing  crops.  We  should  have  leguminous 
tuber  crops  to  take  the  place  of  potatoes,  beets  and  turnips.  Nature 
has  given  us  such  wild  legumes  as  the  groundnut  (Apios  tuberosa)  and 
the  Pomme  de  Prairie  (Psoralea  esculenta),  which  already  have  edible 
tubers  and  which  could  doubtless  be  developed  into  very  valuable  culti- 
vated plants  by  a  few  years  of  breeding. 

Dr.  J.  Russell  Smith,8  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  has  em- 
phasi2ed  the  importance  of  breeding  tree  crops,  and  here  we  have  an 
inexhaustible  field  of  experimentation.  We  should  breed  chestnuts, 
walnuts,  hickories,  oaks,  beeches,  hazelnuts,  and  the  like,  in  order  to 
improve  them  for  the  use  of  man  and  for  growth  as  stock  food.  Many 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  of  rough,  hilly  land  unadapted  for  cul- 
tivation would  be  suited  for  the  growth  of  such  crops. 

The  possibilities  of  breeding  tree  crops  are  well  illustrated  by  the 
excessive  increase  in  vigor,  rapidity  of  growth  and  size  of  fruit  ob- 
tained by  Burbank  in  a  hybrid  between  the  English  walnut  (Juglans 

•Smith,  J.  Russell,  "The  Breeding  and  Use  of  Tree  Crops,"  American 
Breeders'  Association,  Vol.  I.,  p.  86. 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  PLANTS  582 

regia)   and  the  California  black  walnut   (J.  calif ornica).     Burbank 
says: 

The  hybrid  grows  twice  as  fast  as  the  combined  growth  of  both  parents. 
The  leaves  are  from  2  feet  to  a  full  yard  in  length.  The  wood  is  compact,  with 
lustrous,  silky  grain,  taking  a  beautiful  polish,  and  as  the  annual  layers  of 
growth  are  an  inch  or  more  in  thickness  and  the  medullary  rays  prominent,  the 
effect  is  unique. 

Another  of  Burbank's  walnut  hybrids  obtained  by  crossing  the  black 
walnut  with  pollen  of  the  Californian  black  walnut,  produces  fruit  of 
very  much  larger  size  than  either  parent.  When  we  come  to  plant  large 
areas  to  trees,  as  we  are  rapidly  coming  to  do,  imagine  the  immense 
value  to  the  world  if  we  could  plant  hybrids  of  rapid  growth  such  as 
Burbank's  walnuts. 

Who  has  tried  to  produce  hybrids  of  maples,  oaks,  hickories  and 
pines  to  get  quick-growing  hybrids  for  planting  purposes?  Who  has 
hybridized  such  trees  to  get  larger  and  better  fruits  ?  The  world  should 
not  be  compelled  to  wait  much  longer  for  such  improvements.  We 
need  the  improved  stock  for  planting.  Some  trees  live  a  century  before 
they  reach  young  manhood. 

Persimmons,  pawpaws,  huckleberries,  elderberries,  hawthorns  and 
hosts  of  other  native  fruits  are  well  worth  improvement  and  might  be 
utilized  not  only  for  human  food  but  for  hogs,  sheep  and  poultry. 

Mr.  Frank  Babak,  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  has  recently 
shown  that  the  black  sage  (Ramona  stachoides),  a  wild  California 
plant,  and  the  swamp  bay  tree  (Persea  pubescens}  of  the  southeastern 
United  States,  both  contain  a  fairly  high  percentage  of  camphor  and 
could  be  utilized  for  the  manufacture  of  this  valuable  product.  Doubt- 
less these  plants  could,  by  breeding,  be  adapted  to  cultivation  and  the 
percentage  of  camphor  increased. 

The  value  of  improving  native  plants  has  been  strikingly  demon- 
strated by  the  amelioration  of  our  native  grapes.  The  attempts  of  our 
early  ancestors  in  America  to  grow  European  grapes  uniformly  met 
with  failure,  and  finally,  as  a  last  resort,  attempts  were  made  to  culti- 
vate the  native  wild  types.  The  marvelous  success  achieved,  which  has 
resulted  in  the  production  of  a  large  number  of  fine  varieties,  and  es- 
tablished vine  growing  in  the  eastern  and  central  United  States,  is  one 
of  the  important  achievements  of  our  many-sided  national  history. 

The  same  was  true  in  the  case  of  the  gooseberry.  The  European 
varieties  failing  to  succeed  here  because  of  the  mildew,  the  small  fruited 
native  species  were  introduced  into  cultivation,  and  the  size  of  the 
fruits  has  been  more  than  quadrupled  in  the  improved  sorts.  Plums, 
raspberries,  blackberries  and  the  like  furnish  other  illustrations  of  in- 
terest. 

The  native  wild  beggar  weed  (Desmodium  tortuosum)  has  been 
introduced  into  cultivation  in  Florida,  and,  without  breeding  or  im- 


583  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

provement  of  any  kind,  has  in  a  few  years  won  a  permanent  place  in 
southern  agriculture. 

It  may  be  argued  that  the  improvement  of  our  native  plants  would 
be  too  slow  to  justify  attempts  in  this  direction.  I  should  answer  that 
nothing  is  too  slow  that  will  pay.  Nations  bond  themselves  for  hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  dollars  to  carry  on  a  war  of  the  present,  which 
bonds  their  children  must  pay  sometime  in  the  future,  and  for  no  com- 
pensation except  to  maintain  the  pledged  honor  of  the  nation.  While 
breeding  is  slow  when  judged  from  the  "  get-rich-quick  "  standpoint  of 
modern  Chicago,  it  is  not  slow  when  compared  with  the  life  of  a  na- 
tion and  from  the  standpoint  of  permanent  welfare.  Within  the  mem- 
ory of  man  the  tomato  has  been  introduced  into  cultivation  and  ad- 
vanced in  size  from  a  fruit  of  f  of  an  inch  in  diameter  to  our  fine  mod- 
ern fruits,  some  of  which  grow  as  large  as  4  inches  in  diameter. 

A  striking  illustration  of  this  nature  is  furnished  by  the  experi- 
ments that  the  writer  has  conducted  in  the  improvement  of  timothy. 
Timothy  was  introduced  into  cultivation  about  1720,  nearly  two  cen- 
turies ago.  For  many  years  it  has  been  extensively  grown,  but,  until 
recently,  no  attempts  have  been  made  to  develop  improved  races.  In 
experiments  conducted  by  the  Cornell  Experiment  Station,  timothy 
seed  was  obtained  from  a  large  number  of  places  in  this  and  foreign 
countries,  from  which  about  18,000  individual  plants  were  grown  and 
the  different  types  studied  and  isolated.  As  a  result  of  9  years  of  work, 
some  200  different  races  have  been  secured  that  show  a  very  wide  range 
of  characters,  and  vary  from  dwarfs  to  giants  in  size.  A  test  of  the 
yields  of  17  of  these  new  varieties  in  comparison  with  the  best  timothy 
seed  that  could  be  purchased  in  the  market  was  made  in  1910,  and  also 
in  1911.  In  1910  the  average  yield  of  the  17  new  sorts  was  7,451 
pounds  per  acre  and  that  of  the  7  check  plats  of  ordinary  timothy  was 
6,600  pounds  per  acre;  an  average  increase  of  851  pounds  per  acre  in 
favor  of  the  new  varieties.  In  1911  the  average  yield  of  the  17  new 
sorts  was  7,153  pounds  per  acre  and  that  of  the  7  check  plats  was  4,091 
pounds  per  acre;  an  average  increase  of  3,062  pounds  per  acre  in  favor 
of  the  new  varieties.  Four  of  the  high  yielding  sorts  in  1911  gave  an 
increased  yield  of  over  2  tons  per  acre,  or  practically  double  the  aver- 
age yield  of  the  checks,  which  is  an  astonishing  figure  and  can  be  ex- 
plained only  by  the  fact  that  timothy  has  never  been  improved  by  breed- 
ing and  still  consists,  as  generally  cultivated,  of  a  motley  array  of 
many  different  types. 

Hay  is  one  of  the  largest  agricultural  crops  of  the  United  States, 
outranking  all  other  crops,  except  corn,  in  total  value  of  production. 
In  1910,  according  to  the  statements  issued  by  the  United  States  De- 
partment of  Agriculture,  there  were  grown  in  the  United  States  45,- 
691,000  acres  of  hay,  which  yielded  a  crop  having  a  farm  valuation  of 
$747,769,000.  No  statistics  are  available  from  which  we  can  determine 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  PLANTS  584 

what  proportion  of  this  hay  was  timothy,  but  the  writer  believes  that 
we  may  safely  conclude  that  at  least  one  third  of  the  entire  hay  crop  of 
the  country  is  timothy.  If  this  is  true,  the  timothy  crop  of  the  United 
States  in  1910  had  a  valuation  of  over  $249,000,000.  In  the  two  years 
during  which  tests  have  been  made,  the  17  new  sorts  gave  an  average 
increased  yield  of  slightly  over  36£  per  cent,  above  ordinary  timothy. 
A  36f  per  cent,  increase  in  the  valuation  of  the  timothy  crop  as  above 
estimated  would  give  us  over  $90,000,000  as  the  estimated  annual  gain 
in  the  value  of  the  crop  which  would  be  obtained  if  new  sorts  equally 
as  good  as  these  could  be  used  throughout  the  country. 

The  rapid  development  of  the  science  and  art  of  breeding  places  us 
to-day  in  position  to  secure  improvements  much  more  rapidly  than  has 
been  done  in  the  past.  It  would  not  be  astonishing  if  from  25  to  50 
years  of  careful,  intelligent  breeding  would  accomplish  with  a  wild 
plant  what  has  required  many  centuries  under  the  crude  methods  of 
our  ancestors. 

It  may  be  asked  why  we  should  be  in  haste  to  take  up  the  improve- 
ment of  our  native  plants.  In  answer  to  this  it  may  be  stated  that  pro- 
found changes,  such  as  we  desire  and  must  have,  require  time  for  their 
accomplishment.  The  potato  and  the  tomato  did  not  reach  their  pres- 
ent perfection  at  one  bound.  A  number  of  intermediate  stages  or  im- 
provements were  first  necessary.  The  strawberry  and  the  gooseberry 
did  not  reach  their  present  size  by  one  mutation,  but  several  intermedi- 
ate sizes  were  first  necessary.  Improvements  apparently  come  by  sud- 
den leaps  or  mutations,  and  each  of  these  paves  the  way  for  further 
development  that  might  never  be  possible  without  the  first  improve- 
ment. 

In  breeding,  the  time  element  is  the  limiting  factor  of  importance. 
No  permanent  improvement  of  value  can  be  obtained  in  a  day,  and  no 
time  should  be  lost  in  beginning,  on  a  scale  commensurate  with  its  im- 
portance, the  improvement  of  our  native  plants  of  promise.  We  must 
conserve  time  and  fulfill  our  duty  to  the  succeeding  generations.  Why 
is  it  that  such  a  small  proportion  of  our  lands  are  cultivated?  Ac~ 
cording  to  the  1900  census,  of  the  1,900,000,000  acres  of  land  in  con- 
tinental United  States  only  838  millions  of  acres  were  in  farms,  and  of 
this  area  over  50.6  per  cent,  was  unimproved  land.  The  sterile  sandy 
lands,  and  the  low,  wet  lands,  the  stony  lands  and  the  hill  lands,  the 
mountain  lands  of  high  altitude  and  the  barren  lands  of  deserts  lacking 
water,  and  the  like,  all  uncultivatable  and  largely  worthless  for  crops 
at  present  grown,  make  up  far  the  larger  part  of  our  vast  domain. 

Travel  through  the  high,  hilly  and  mountainous  regions  of  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia,  and  you  find  vast  areas  covered  mainly  with  a  low  growth 
of  young  trees  and  bushes,  the  main  forests  having  been  removed.  The 
same  is  true  of  many  extended  areas  in  the  central  and  western  states. 


585  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

The  utilization  of  these  waste  lands  forms  one  of  our  great  national 
problems,  and  the  beginning  of  the  solution  of  the  problem  rests  in 
finding  the  crops  best  adapted  to  such  areas  or  in  all  probability  in 
breeding  crops  that  will  be  adapted  to  them.  The  necessity  of  using 
these  waste  lands  in  the  near  future  is  evident.  Shall  we  plant  them  to 
forest?  Certainly  much  of  this  land  should  be  in  forest,  or  in  tree 
crops  of  some  sort,  but  we  want  tree  crops,  at  least  in  many  cases,  that 
will  return  food  as  well  as  shelter.  The  Italian  yield  of  chestnuts  is 
said  to  average  12  bushels  per  acre,  and  J.  Russell  Smith  states  that 
"  the  value  of  European  mountain-side  chestnut  orchards  equals  acre 
for  acre  the  Illinois  corn  belt."  The  kinds  of  trees  to  plant  in  such 
areas  for  wood,  fruit,  sugar,  starch,  camphor  or  forage  require  care- 
ful study  and  the  proper  breeding  in  order  to  secure  the  best  sorts 
possible. 

But  this  is  not  all  of  the  problem.  Grain,  forage  and  special  fruit 
crops,  not  necessarily  forest  trees,  require  to  be  as  carefully  considered, 
and  here  again  breeding  to  secure  good  races  adapted  to  the  condi- 
tions will  be  the  key  note  of  success.  All  this  requires  time,  and  the 
generations  to  follow  will  not  have  the  time  and  certainly  not  the 
money  if  they  do  not  repudiate  our  war  debts.  The  work  should  be 
started  immediately  in  order  to  obtain  the  results  by  the  time  conditions 
demand  them.  When  I  urge  this  as  one  of  the  important  national  prob- 
lems of  conservation,  I  speak  not  without  some  authority.  My  life  has 
been  given  to  agricultural  work  in  various  parts  of  the  United  States. 
My  boyhood  on  an  Iowa  farm  gave  me  a  knowledge  of  the  rich  prairie 
regions  of  the  west.  My  education  in  the  University  of  Nebraska  and 
Washington  University,  Missouri,  extended  that  knowledge.  My  six- 
teen years  of  service  in  the  National  Department  of  Agriculture,  work- 
ing with  cotton  and  oranges  in  Florida,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi 
and  Texas,  taught  me  southern  conditions  and  demands,  and  now  my 
experience  of  the  last  five  years  in  Cornell  University,  associated  with 
that  master  agriculturist,  Dean  L.  H.  Bailey,  has  broadened  my  hori- 
zon to  at  least  some  conception  of  the  field  of  agricultural  education. 

As  to  the  possibilities  of  producing  the  suggested  improvements  in 
plants,  it  again  may  be  granted  that  I  can  speak  with  some  degree  of 
authority  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  great  cotton,  corn,  timothy, 
orange  and  pineapple  industries  have,  at  least  in  certain  places,  felt  the 
influence  of  new  varieties  that  have  gone  out  from  my  laboratory.  I 
say  this  not  to  extol  myself,  as  any  man  in  my  place  with  my  oppor- 
tunity could  have  accomplished  the  same  results  and  many  would  have 
done  very  much  more.  I  say  it  simply  to  lend  weight  to  my  statements. 

I  can  by  no  words  of  mine  present  this  problem  in  its  importance 
as  I  see  it.  In  no  way,  probably,  can  my  efforts  stir  the  nation  to  a  rec- 
ognition of  the  necessities  of  this  case,  so  that  action  will  not  be  too 
long  delayed.  Recognizing  the  urgency  of  the  problem  as  I  do,  how- 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  PLANTS  586 

ever,  I  should  be  remiss  of  my  duty  did  I  not  use  such  powers  and  gifts 
as  have  been  given  me  to  urge  forward  a  project  that  sooner  or  later 
will  be  recognized  as  one  of  the  keystones  of  the  conservation  movement. 

The  materials  for  the  consummation  of  the  ideals  I  have  presented 
are  all  around  us.  The  brawn  and  brain  for  the  service  is  awaiting  the 
opportunity.  The  service  will  be  long  and  difficult,  however,  and  the 
servant  must  live  while  engaged  in  the  task.  Only  by  long,  consecutive 
years  of  service  can  the  highest  ideals  be  reached.  Men  must  consecrate 
their  lives  to  this  achievement.  The  service  will  be  pleasant  and  the 
scientific  results  gathered  from  year  to  year  will  repay  the  worker,  but 
means  must  be  found  to  place  the  investigator  beyond  the  temptation 
of  other  employment,  as  permanency  of  tenure  in  such  work  will  be  of 
the  highest  importance.  It  is  a  work  for  the  state  and  the  nation,  but 
I  fear  they  will  be  too  slow  to  recognize  the  long-time  requirements  of 
the  work.  Political  institutions  demand  too  quick  results.  I  feel  that 
the  most  hopeful  method  of  accomplishing  some  of  the  ideals  outlined 
is  through  endowed  institutions.  To  what  more  serviceable  task  could 
benefactions  be  devoted  than  to  the  solution  of  such  problems,  and 
what  type  of  institution  would  return  more  credit  to  the  donor  ?  Insti- 
tutions to  conduct  such  work  could  be  tied  up  with  some  of  our  great 
universities  to  establish  the  proper  scientific  relationship,  and  should 
be  in  such  close  cooperation  with  these  universities  that  graduate  stu- 
dents could  be  utilized  in  connection  with  the  investigations  and  trained 
in  the  service. 

In  summarizing  this  discussion  I  may  say  that  to  one  unfamiliar 
with  the  possibilities  of  breeding  the  outcome  of  such  experiments  may 
appear  doubtful.  We  need  no  lamp  to  guide  us  except  that  of  experi- 
ence. When  we  realize  the  little  promise  exhibited  by  the  native  grapes, 
tomatoes  and  potatoes  from  which  our  cultivated  sorts  have  sprung,  we 
gain  a  conception  of  the  tremendous  increases  that  can  be  brought 
about  by  a  century  of  cultivation,  even  when  the  breeding  is  of  desul- 
tory nature.  Couple  with  a  century  of  time,  aye  fifty  years,  the  skill 
of  trained  breeders,  and  what  might  we  not  accomplish.  The  greatness 
of  the  possibilities  stretches  before  the  enthusiastic  breeder  as  his  mind 
spans  the  years  filled  with  the  battles  of  conquest  and  achievement  in 
the  building  up  of  new  industries,  like  a  panorama  of  the  wars  and 
struggles  in  the  building  of  a  nation.  Man's  creative  genius  is  touched. 
It  appeals  to  him  in  its  vastness  as  a  challenge.  The  trained  man  in 
the  field  of  breeding  feels  the  certainty  of  his  power.  He  longs  for  the 
conquest. 


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